12 October 2014

A 'Fast' Experience

Ever tried to fast for a day? I mean really, the real deal, no food and no water. I suggest you try it. Once. Just for the experience of it.

I tried it just the day before. Yes, it was worth it. :-)

I know that you know what I mean, and what this fasting is all about. Hehe.

So wify and I began early morning, before daybreak, with some really early breakfast. You see the irony here? Starting a day of fasting with breakfast!

Anyway, the rest of the day started as a normal saturday. Except we were not supposed to eat or drink anything. Not even a sip of water. I know, right! And this was supposed to be a weekend! Oh, well.So the day went on. We killed time watching TV, making small talk, doing little stuff around the house. Around noon we went to the market for some 'vrat' shopping and wify got some mehendi on her hands. All this time all I could really think of was 'food'. Yearning for just a little bit of anything: paratha, sandwich, even toast. Not to mention a good cup of tea. Wify had some more experience at fasting than I, but even she wasn't actually that much better off than me this time. Besides, having the day off we really didn't have much to distract us from missing food like that. Hunger does strange things to you. We were both (okay, especially me) irritable, cranky, and on the verge of snapping, and getting worse with every passing hour. By evening we were starving more than a famine-hit district. Our energies (and blood-suagr levels) dangerously low, we lay around the house, hardly making any movements. Talking less and less. The day stretched on like a whole week! I couldn't wait for it to end.

Finally, the daylight started to vane and we could now look forward to dinner! We started planning for it. Cooking was out of question: we already needed supports to stand up and walk around. So we decided to eat out. I even dialled up the nearby resaurant and got a reservation. All set.Yessssss!And now we had to wait for the moon to show up so we could end the fast and take our first bite in what seemed like ages. The TV new channels showed moon popping out all over the country: Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow, even Delhi! We watched and waited, with our stomach growling audibly at the sight of people breaking fasts. But no one mentioned good ol' Bengaluru. The reason being a cloud cover over the city. It showed no promise of letting up, so we gave up hopes of a peek at the moon. A few minutes past the expected moonrise time was all we could wait; wify did the honors first and I followed. It was over! We had survived! It had been a long day. Okay, lets go to dinner.At the restaurant we dug into our long-decided choice of food: tender naan with delectable dishes and a lemon soda to wash it all down. As we enjoyed the food, the hunger of the day felt like a distant memory. Oh, the bliss! Food, glorious food! Yeaaahh!Topped off nicely, we decided to walk back home.Since then, I noticed that I've been enjoying food better than ever before. Even regular daal-roti tastes delicious and tea seems like one of the best things mankind has ever managed to produce. All that hunger also slowed me down physically and mentally. I can't explain it exactly, but I think I now feel more calm and relaxed. It feels good! :-)I suggest you give fasting a try. You might get some good out of it too! Cheers,Aashish